Before
There Were Lights: The Story of Electricity in the U.S.

For thousands
of years, people all over the world have been fascinated by lightning.
Some people must have wondered how to put that kind of power to
practical use. But it wasn?t until the 18th century that the path
to the everyday use of electrical power began to take shape.

Ben
Franklin proved that lightning was a form of electricity.

Maybe you have heard about the famous kite experiment by American Founding Father and inventor Benjamin Franklin. In 1752, to prove that lightning was electrical, he flew a kite during a thunderstorm.

He tied a metal key onto the string and, as he suspected it would, electricity from the storm clouds flowed down the string, which was wet, and he received an electrical shock. Franklin was extremely lucky not to have been seriously hurt during this experiment, but he was excited to have proved his idea.

Throughout
the next hundred years, many inventors and scientists tried and
failed to create a way to use electrical power to make light. In
1879, the American inventor, Thomas
Edison, was finally able to produce a reliable, long-lasting
electric light bulb in his laboratory.

By the end
of the 1880s, small electrical stations based on Edison?s designs
were in a number of U.S. cities. But each station was able to power
only a few city blocks.

Although the
majority of people living in larger towns and cities had electricity
by 1930, only 10 percent of Americans who lived on farms and in
rural areas had electric power. At this time, electric companies
were all privately owned and run to make money. These companies
argued that it would be too expensive to string miles of electric
lines to farms. They also thought farmers were too poor to pay for
electric service.

President Franklin
Roosevelt believed strongly that America?s farming areas should have
the same access to electricity as cities. In 1935 the Rural Electric Administration was created to bring electricity
to rural areas like the Tennessee Valley.

By 1939 the
percentage of rural homes with
electricity had risen to 25 percent. The Tennessee Valley Authority
also set up the Electric Home and Farm Authority to help farmers
buy electric appliances like stoves and washing machines. Farm families
of that time found that these helpful electric appliances made their
lives much easier.

Today, Americans?
standard of living has risen as nearly everyone has electric power
at home, school, and at work. Read more here about life in the Valley before electricity, and how TVA power changed things for the better.